Two Christmases

Not quite the excitement as the movie Four Christmases but having a Greek and Scottish family does make for exciting times.  On the 24th the family packed up and headed over to mom and dads for Christmas Eve dinner.  As usual my mom and sister prepared dinner and the men did their best to stay out of the way.  Dinner was spectacular as always with the main hit (sorry mom) being my sisters boiled and baked carrots.  Yes...carrots.  I don't know if I've become sensitized to healthy foods but these tasted amazing.  I'll get this simple recipe from her and post it up...or, Maria if you read this please post it up!

There was no workout on the 24th :(  I had to work the day and the moment I got home it was shower, change, load the presents and out the door!
As mentioned in a previous post eating in moderation with my family has always been difficult.  The foods are always so tasty and with good company you sometimes loose track of what you've popped in your mouth.
After dinner the girls tore their Christmas gifts apart!  I think the highlight of the night was the giant doll house that my parents got them.  The downside to this was that I spent two hours putting it together and never finished!
It would have been quicker for me to build a real house then to put this thing together.

Christmas Day was spent at our house.  I had my mother and father in law come in from Langley as well as my parents show up.
First off though it was time for the girls to get us up and go see if Santa showed up.
I quickly grabbed the camera and took a short video but it's too big to post here.  So, here are a few pics:

slacking today though.  I did get time for a quick workout although it was tough getting the girls motivated with all the presents around.  BUT they did join me with enthusiasm for two things.  First off we did a stair climb.  450 stairs to be exact.  Georgia joined me for each and every one.  Sophia made it about half way before she collapsed on the couch from exhaustion. If you are wondering why we are doing stair climbs it's because I'm seriously considering doing the:

The 10th Annual Stairclimb for Clean Air

http://www.bc.lung.ca/campaigns_and_events/stairclimb_for_cleanair.html

Why: A sky-scraping 48 storeys high, participants make their way all the way to the top of the Wall Centre to help raise funds in support of lung health and air quality research, education, and lung patient support programs across the province.

I've never done anything like this before.  I have so much respect for my friend Darren who has been riding the past few years in the Ride to Conquer Cancer to help raise money for cancer research and programs.

I've always wanted to do something like this but it's always been one excuse after another.

If all goes well...i'm hoping one or all of my family members will try this.  

Back to the workout.  I also was able to get in 2 sets x 50 crunches, and a quick set of heavy dumbbell presses.  The fun part of my workout was performing 35 sets of Sophia presses:

And 25 sets of Georgia presses:

All in all dinner was successful.  I didn't calorie count.  I had 2 glasses of wine.  Ate balanced and didn't over indulge.  Best part was I got to spend 2 full days with my family....couldn't have been any better :)